Superagency Nears Oblivion For This Session

TALLAHASSEE — House leaders Wednesday dealt a near-fatal blow to creation of a transportation superagency in Central Florida, refusing to allow a sales tax increase to pay for it.

The leadership position came at a morning meeting between Central Florida legislators and members of the Greater Orlando Chamber of Commerce who flew to the capital to lobby for a transportation solution.

Webster said Wednesday afternoon the superagency plan is in trouble, but he still hopes for a compromise with legislative leaders that would provide funding to solve a $300 million shortage in road needs over the next five years.

For Orlando Mayor Bill Frederick, one of the superagency's strongest supporters, Wednesday's news was particularly distressing.

''It doesn't matter whose fault it is, whether we had tried to work out a compromise and failed or whether we had worked out a compromise and not gotten it past the leadership, we still failed,'' he said. ''The people back home don't care. They just know that we failed.''

Frederick tried to avoid individual criticism, but in reference to the local delegation, said, ''They can say they tried, but after all that's part of the territory. Saying that just doesn't cut it. In the city, I don't get out of the barrel until I've solved the problem.''

What has crippled the proposal is a belief among House leaders that the sales tax is a state revenue and is reserved for the state.

Central Florida legislators wanted to raise the sales tax a penny on the dollar for three years. They argued the $200 million from the tax would be used to build an expressway system that would solve state road problems. The money would not be spent on local roads.

But they hit a political roadblock. House Speaker James Harold Thompson, D-Gretna, knows the state likely will face a financial crunch in the next couple of years and will have to levy a sixth-cent sales tax, which generates about $1 billion a year.

If urban areas like Orlando are allowed to levy a sixth cent for transportation needs, future House leaders like Rep. Jon Mills, D-Gainesville, and Rep. Tom Gustafson, D-Fort Lauderdale, would face the politically unpopular choice of asking for a seventh cent. Thompson's loyalty to those men forms a large part of his opposition to a local option sales tax, said members of the Central Florida delegation.

Without leadership approval, the measure dies because the speaker controls what bills reach the floor.

Several Central Florida legislators said late Wednesday that a compromise is still possible, but it depends on forming a consensus in the delegation. So far that hasn't happened.

''We need to show the leadership that everyone is in agreement on this,'' said Rep. Bobby Brantley, R-Longwood.

Orange County commissioners have passed a resolution opposing a superagency, arguing that it is not needed.

Commissioner Vera Carter, who attended Wednesday's meeting here, said she was particularly worried that the state would give the superagency power to levy impact fees. The county already is levying impact fees on new construction to offset growth's impact on the county transportation.

Frederick said the lesson learned Wednesday was that the push to solve the problem should have started earlier, and with the top of the leadership.